Is social smoking damaging my health?

The rule is, the less you smoke, the better. Any smoke - even passive smoke from someone else's cigarettes, can damage your body, and increase your risk of heart disease and numerous cancer.

So that means that those nightly cigarettes are bad for your health - though admittedly smoking 10 a day would be much more harmful.

And, as you have already discovered, it is difficult to just 'cut down'. You weren't able to stick to just smoking on Friday and Saturday nights - you soon found you had to have a cigarette each night. And the risk is that you will soon need to have one after lunch as well.

If you are at all concerned about your health then the only thing to do is give up completely. That way, those cravings should soon stop.